The present invention relates to a magnetic head for a magnetic disk drive using a perpendicular magnetic recording system and, more particularly, it relates to a structure of a perpendicular recording magnetic head suitable for writing magnetic information at high density on a medium surface, as well as a manufacturing method thereof.
Storage devices for information equipment mainly use semiconductor memories and magnetic memories. Specifically, semiconductor memories are used for internal storage devices with a view point of access time, and magnetic disk drives are used for external storage devices with a view point of large capacity and nonvolatility. The storage capacity is an important index representing the performance of the magnetic disk drive. Large capacity and small size magnetic disk drives have been demanded in the market along with development of the information society in recent years. Recording systems suitable to the demand include a perpendicular recording system. Since the system can increase the density, it is highly probable to be predominant instead of the conventional in-plane recording system.
Patent Document 1 (JP-A No. 2004-310968) discloses a perpendicular recording magnetic head having a stabilized magnetization film with a soft magnetic characteristic on the lateral surface of a main magnetic pole piece in the direction of track width. Patent Document 2 (JP-A No. 2005-18851) discloses a perpendicular recording magnetic head that makes the magnetic field gradient abrupt by disposing a soft magnetic film on the trailing side of a main magnetic pole piece.